The oil companies Repsol, BP, Chevron, among others, have given up their intention to search for black gold in Mexico. So far this year, at least 16 companies have initiated the procedure for early termination of their exploration contract before the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH). The oil companies, which landed in Mexican territory in 2014 thanks to the energy reform that opened the possibility of private investment in hydrocarbon exploration and production, have culminated almost a decade later in partial returns and renunciations of the awarded blocks.
In the most recent session of the National Hydrocarbons Commission, last Thursday, the regulatory body authorized the return of an area in the hands of Calicanto Oil&Gas as well as a block awarded to the consortium formed by BP Exploration México, Equinor Upstream and TotalEnergies México. The energy regulatory body also approved the early resignation of two contractual areas of the Spanish company Repsol.
In the session it was detailed that, in the case of Calicanto, although the company had permission to explore an area of 10.5 kilometers on the coast of Tabasco for 25 years starting in 2016, in July 2023 the contractor notified his resignation from the awarded areas. In the case of the Spanish oil company, Repsol, they withdrew from two contracts valid for 30 years and a joint area of 1,625 square kilometers in the Burgos basin, in the Gulf of Mexico.
The consortium formed by the British BP, the French TotalEnergies and the Norwegian Equinor, signed a contract in March 2017 with a validity of 35 years for exploration in the Saline Basin in an area of 2,381 square kilometers. In this case, the commissioners reported that the companies were fined $42.2 million for not complying with the minimum work program. “During this year we had several meetings with the companies that operate in this contract and, finally, they agreed to pay the penalty to the Mexican Petroleum Fund and no way, it was no longer possible to continue,” commented the president of the CNH during the session. Agustín Díaz.
These oil companies join a previous list that has abandoned the tendered oil fields, mainly in the Gulf of Mexico: Eni, China Offshore Oil Corporation, Capricorn Energy, Pantera Exploration and Production, Caligari México, among other oil companies, have decided to bet for other oil veins before Mexico.
Gonzalo Monroy, general director of the energy consulting firm GMEC, explains that the oil companies that arrived in Mexico, hand in hand with the oil opening of the previous six-year period, sought to reveal whether the hydrocarbon potential of the United States extended to the Mexican side and with it the potential to exploit light oil. “Those exploration campaigns were carried out during the years from 2016 to 2020 and there we realized that Mexico does have oil, but not in quantities that are competitive with other areas. “Mexico did not have the geological resources to attract so much interest,” he says.
The specialist adds that the world oil market changed in 2020 when, practically, all global investment in hydrocarbons dried up. “There is practically no interest out there in the international market to come to Mexico to invest, in deep waters it is very possible that that famous deep water treasure will simply stay down there in the ground,” he says.
Since the beginning of this Administration, the oil rounds for the awarding of new areas to private companies were interrupted, while the production of the state oil company Pemex remains stagnant, barely above 1.6 million barrels per day, according to data from the CNH. In his most recent appearance, the director of Pemex, Octavio Ramírez Oropeza, predicted that at the end of 2024 oil production will close at 1.8 million barrels, a goal far from the more than two million projected at the beginning of this mandate. .
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